cool kids , fulton reed

fifteen

"left, right? sound good?" she asked as she pointed at herself then guy.

"fine with me," he said and nodded once.

"i'm right-wing, guy's left-wing," she told charlie while pointing to their names on the roster.

"okay," charlie said and marked it beside their names.

"hey," guy said, leaning forward to lightly hit sloane's arm.

"yeah?" she asked after shuffling toward him and returning the hit.

"i've got to go get something for my mom. can you go with me friday?" he asked her while propping his hand on the front of the box.

"mhm!" she answered and brightened slightly as a small smile crossed her face.

"hey, team! hey, team!" tibbles yelled and leaned over the short glass wall above the box. the overlapping chatter stopped as they turned around to look up at him. "we're going to be great today, right? where's gordon?" he asked as he surveyed the box.

"you tell us," luis answered, lifting his hand from jesse's shoulder and dropping it.

"i don't believe this," tibbles quietly said and sloane sighed sadly.

"team usa, i'm sorry," a referee said as he skated over to them with his sleeve pushed back to look at his watch, "but without a coach behind the bench, you'll forfeit the game," he finished and peered at them regretfully as he stopped in front of the box.

"but you can't do that!" adam said while narrowing his eyes at the referee. sloane quickly scanned the crowd again as the team complained and settled her gaze on miss mackay as she tried to find a seat.

"we have a coach," sloane said, slowly tearing her gaze from miss mackay to look at the referee. she ignored the confused stares of her teammates as she moved away from the box. "we do, i promise," she told the skeptical looking referee as she continued to move away from the box. "miss mackay!" she yelled and hurried toward her once she stopped and turned around.

"miss mackay," she said as she stopped in front of her tutor. she cracked her knuckles nervously as she briefly looked through the crowd, sighed through her nose, and returned her gaze to her tutor.

"hey, sloane. what's up?" miss mackay questioned. she examined sloane's anxious expression and narrowed her eyes as the younger girl fidgeted nervously. "is something wrong? are you okay?"

"i need you to do me a favor, miss mackay. a huge favor," sloane said and took a deep breath. she licked at her chapped lips, glancing at the box as she fought to seem calm. "it may be the biggest favor in history."

"that's a big claim. what do you need?" miss mackay asked, causing sloane to snap her gaze up.

"i need you to pretend to be our coach. if you don't, we forfeit the game," sloane explained as pleadingly as she could.